Teens held after woman in car killed by stone

Police in Guangdong have detained three teenagers for allegedly hurling stones at vehicles on an expressway, causing the death of the young widow of a Shenzhen singer renowned for his dedication to the underprivileged.

On her trip from Shantou, Guangdong, to Shenzhen, Xing Dan, the 30-year-old wife of late singer Cong Fei, suffered serious head injuries when a flying stone smashed the windscreen of the car in which she was travelling just before midnight on Wednesday, according to The Southern Metropolis News.

Xing was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital a few hours later, the report said.

The fatal accident became one of the mainland's hottest online chat topics, partly because Cong was highly respected for his philanthropic acts, such as donating about 3 million yuan (HK$3.57 million) to the poor nationwide and helping to pay for the tuition of 180 poverty-stricken schoolchildren before his death in 2005. Witnesses helped police detain three suspects - aged 15, 17 and 19 - in a village near the accident scene before dawn on Saturday, said a spokesman for Huizhou police.

Cai Rongyang, the deputy police chief in Huizhou, was quoted in the newspaper report as saying: 'The three suspects, none of whom had any criminal record, told us this was the first time they had hurled stones at passing vehicles. They said what they had done was nothing more than having fun.'

Cai added that they fled the scene soon after they realised that a car had been hit and had stopped.

Huang Fuguang, the 67-year-old father of one of the boys, said his son was seldom at home aside from meal times.

Huang's neighbours said the family was one of the poorest in the village. The other two boys were sons of migrant workers.

Zou Yunzhang, a senior officer at the Public Security Bureau in Huidong county, said residents living along the expressway would be warned they could be jailed for throwing things at vehicles and said patrols would be stepped up.